


Khan: Hamish

by wheel_pen



Series: Khan AU [5]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-27
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-23 13:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4879168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk awakens a third Augment, Hamish, who was a doctor. His attitude towards Khan is refreshingly different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Khan: Hamish

**Author's Note:**

> The bad words are censored. That’s just how I do things.  
> I hope you enjoy this AU. I own nothing and appreciate the chance to play in this universe.

There were fewer guards in Sickbay this time, but more blankets—McCoy was trying to learn everything he could about Augment physiology and apply it, because at some point, if only briefly (he hoped), he would have seventy-three of them to deal with. “Khan, could you lean back a bit, you’re confusing the biobed,” he said testily, watching the various numbers for any sign of a (real) change.

“Your machines are easily confused,” Khan judged, but he pulled back from hovering directly over Hamish. Khan was eager to have another member of his family around; as when Ruby was awakened Kirk found the image hard to reconcile with the Khan he knew. His gut said this was a good idea, and what he’d promised Khan for good behavior—the man exhaled arrogance and disdain with every breath, but he’d refrained from killing or maiming anyone, trying to sabotage the ship, escaping. He hadn’t so much as tried to hack into computer systems he wasn’t supposed to access. He was keeping his end of the bargain, so Kirk was determined to keep his.

There were a few beeps suddenly, and everyone in the room went on alert. “Okay, he’s coming around,” McCoy announced.

Hamish groaned slightly and turned his head away from the light above him. McCoy redirected it and his eyes blinked rapidly as he tried to open them and focus on his surroundings. Khan popped his head directly into the man’s field of view again. “Hamish! It’s me, Hamish. Wake up.”

“Oh G-d,” was the first thing Hamish said, sounding slightly frightened. It didn’t seem very Augment-like to Kirk, but then again, Ruby had cried, so…

“You’re safe here, Hamish,” Khan assured him, taking his hand. “You’re safe and we’re—“

“Why are you here?” Hamish blurted. It was not complimentary. His breath quickened and he sounded like he was fighting back tears. “Why aren’t I dead?”

Khan frowned but tried to remain upbeat. “We were put to sleep, Hamish,” he reminded him. “In the cryo-tubes. That was three—“

“G-d, couldn’t someone have pulled the plug?” Hamish interrupted, despair in his voice.

This was clearly not going how Khan thought it would, and he glanced back at Ruby, who stepped forward though less optimistically. “Hamish—“ she began.

“Oh G-d,” he repeated, and twisted his hand away from Khan’s. “Are we all here? All of us?”

“Seventy-three,” Ruby told him quietly. This news only seemed to upset him more, however.

Khan clearly did not know what to do. “Hamish, you’re safe here,” he said again, as if this fear might be the problem. “We’ve been given a second chance to rule a planet, the way we were—“

“No, no,” Hamish was saying, trying to push Khan away from him. “Leave me alone. Just get away—“ He tried to roll away from Khan but obviously didn’t realize how narrow the bed was, and both Khan and McCoy grabbed him before he could pitch right off. “Get away from me,” he told Khan clearly, and curled up on his side.

Kirk thought about making a quip about how he liked this guy’s attitude, but then he saw the fury, the hurt, on Khan’s face as he turned around, and he imagined how he would feel if Spock or Bones rejected him when he thought he’d rescued them. He wasn’t sure he could truly empathize with Khan, ever, but he knew enough to get out of his way when he stomped through the crowd and out of Sickbay.

Two Security personnel looked at Kirk questioningly. “Keep your distance,” he warned, giving them the nod to follow.

Ruby was having better luck comforting Hamish, their hands intertwined and faces close together as they whispered tearfully to each other. McCoy kept discreetly to his other side, eyes on his vitals and the results from his handheld scanner. “I have to go after him,” Ruby finally said, pulling away.

“I know,” Hamish sighed, letting her go. She jogged from the room, off to find Khan and hopefully absorb all his negative feelings before he punched a hole in the ship.

McCoy waited a beat, then when it looked like the Augment was just going to stay tucked up on his side he ducked around to his front. “Hi there,” he said, with slightly forced cheerfulness. “Can I get a blood sample?”

“Oh, right,” Hamish agreed dully, as if this was a perfectly normal part of waking up, and let his arm protrude from under the blankets. “Um, who are you again? Sorry.”

“Dr. Leonard McCoy, at your service,” he replied. “Just going to check your eyes, hold still and look right here.”

“Mmm, doctor,” Hamish repeated vaguely, obviously trying to figure out what was going on. Right, Khan had been thrown out before he could do his speech.

Kirk stepped up into Hamish’s field of view, and the Augment tried to roll over and sit up a bit more. “I’m James Kirk, captain of this ship,” he introduced. “You’re on the _Enterprise_.”

“Oh, a ship,” Hamish echoed. “Yes, I guess that’s smart. The middle of the Pacific, perhaps? Or someplace colder…”

“Actually we’re in space,” Kirk clarified, and Hamish’s eyes widened. He tried to sound casual as he added, “You’re three hundred years in the future. This ship travels faster than the speed of light, and there are sentient beings from other planets.” Those were the points Khan liked to hit.

“Oh, G-d,” Hamish said once more, dropping back down onto the bed.

Kirk glanced at McCoy, who shrugged as if to say there really wasn’t anything wrong with him. Kirk stepped closer. “Are you okay?” he checked. “I know it’s a lot to take in…”

“Yeah,” Hamish sighed, closing his eyes briefly. Actually he seemed the most relatable Augment to Kirk so far: no one could possibly relate to Khan, and Ruby might be ‘the runt of the litter’ but she was also drop-dead gorgeous. Hamish was a little more normal looking—on the short side, a bit stocky, an open, pleasant face but not the sort you’d see carved on a statue. And with the way he’d flat-out refused to celebrate being reunited with Khan, he seemed to have a different perspective on their life philosophy. “Sorry,” Hamish said after a moment, opening his eyes again. “Captain Kirk, right? Why am I awake?”

It suddenly seemed like a very long story to Kirk, and he tried to shorten it on the fly. “Well, we’re taking the Augments to a deserted planet, so you guys can live there by yourselves,” he began.

Hamish pushed himself into a sitting position, keeping the blankets bundled around him like he was still cold. “Was this ship commissioned by Khan?” he wanted to know.

“Uh, no,” Kirk corrected, trying not to sound too horrified at the thought. “We’re part of the United Federation of Planets, which includes Earth. We’re a ship of science and exploration.”

“Packed up Khan and the other Augments in their cryo-tubes and were told to head for the hills,” McCoy added smartly. “Still looking for just the right planet for you folks, though.”

“Oh, and, we weren’t going to wake _any_ of you up,” Kirk went on, realizing he hadn’t really answered Hamish’s question yet, “but Khan’s tube malfunctioned, and we had to revive him. And he said things would go better if you and Ruby were awake, too.” Wow, that didn’t leave _anything_ out.

Hamish drew his knees up and rested his forehead on them, like this news pained him. “Um, do you know—do people remember—how dangerous we are?” he asked haltingly, as if he didn’t really want to know the answer. Another idea suddenly occurred to him. “Or are we—not dangerous anymore?” He sounded almost hopeful as he said this, but he deflated again when he saw the dark look ping between Kirk and McCoy.

“We’re aware,” was all Kirk said.

“S—t,” Hamish swore in frustration. “We did something, didn’t we?” he guessed grimly. “Somehow two of us woke up, and no one knew what to do, and—there was trouble—“

Well, that wasn’t _exactly_ what had happened, but pretty close. “Why do you say, _two_ of you?” Kirk asked in confusion.

Now _Hamish_ was confused. “Wait, hang on.” He rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Sorry. I think—I’m not supposed to be around strong magnetic fields,” he said randomly, looking around.

“There’s none in here,” McCoy assured him. “Why not?”

“Er—s—t, I have to talk to Khan,” Hamish sighed. Clearly he was loathe to do this. “Actually, could I take a shower first? Maybe have something to eat?”

“Of course,” Kirk told him, stepping aside quickly. “We’ll talk later. Bones, he’s all yours.”

**

Kirk found the two Security personnel just around the corner from Sickbay, several meters away from Khan and Ruby who sat on the floor leaning against the wall with their arms linked. Kirk approached gingerly.

“Hey.”

“How’s Hamish?” Khan asked immediately.

Kirk sat down across the hall from them, feeling a little silly but reminding himself he was the captain and he could sit wherever he wanted, even on the floor. “He’s good,” he began, then downgraded, “He’s okay. Taking a shower, getting some food. Kind of confused, though.”

“Hamish was the first to be put to sleep,” Khan revealed. Kirk wasn’t really sure of the significance of that. “I did not realize he would… have such trouble waking.”

“I’ll go talk to him,” Ruby said, and kissed Khan’s cheek before disentangling herself from him and popping up. Kirk started to get up, too, but he didn’t get very far before she trotted off and he sat back down to see Khan frowning at him slightly.

“What? It’s called good manners,” Kirk claimed. Khan rolled his eyes. “Hey, why is Hamish afraid of magnets?” he asked.

Khan blinked at him, then apparently remembered. “Oh, yes, he shouldn’t be around strong electromagnetic fields,” he reiterated. This did not answer Kirk’s question. “The records from the Eugenics Wars are sparse,” he went on, seemingly unconnected.

“Or classified,” Kirk agreed. “But yeah, a lot just plain didn’t survive. We got the gist of it, though,” he added pointedly.

Khan smiled without warmth. “How clever of you. Hamish has an electronic data storage chip embedded in his arm,” he explained, touching his upper right arm by way of example. “It contains—if it hasn’t been damaged—all of the Augments’ records, and all of the information we could gather about the wars from other sources.”

Kirk goggled at him. “What?! You mean he’s got—“ He shook his head. “Kirk to McCoy.”

“ _McCoy here_.”

“Bones, Hamish has some kind of old-time data chip in his arm,” Kirk told him quickly. “We need to get it out and see what’s on it.”

“ _Oh, that was the magnet thing?_ ” McCoy surmised.

“Yes,” Khan confirmed. “A strong electromagnetic field could damage the device.” He paused. “You may tell him I give permission for its extraction.”

“ _Thanks, we’ll get right on that_ ,” McCoy replied dryly. “ _I’ll send it to Spock?_ ”

“ASAP,” Kirk confirmed. “Thanks.” He turned back to Khan. “So how did _that_ happen?” he wanted to know. “He was used as a time capsule by whoever caught you guys?”

Khan’s look said, disdainfully, that this was not the case. “We employed subterfuge to save those records,” he told Kirk. “Earth’s communication and archival functions were in chaos, and we suspected all records of our creation would be destroyed to prevent anyone from following our example. So we hid them. Hamish was to be the first put to sleep and,” he added dryly, “was considered the least threatening, the most… docile by our judges.” He shrugged. “It was unlikely they would open the cryo-tube again once they’d sealed it.”

Kirk nodded slowly, thinking about the information contained on that data chip. Starfleet wouldn’t _destroy_ it, probably, but Khan was right, they would classify it so deep no one would ever get a look at how the Augments were made, for fear they would copy it. Kirk wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On the one hand his duty to Starfleet was clear, and he knew exactly what they would do with this information.

On the other, he also felt like little long-term good came from suppressing information—take the knowledge of Khan’s very existence, for example. Only the deepest levels of Starfleet Command knew specifically what had happened to him and his crew after the Eugenics Wars—most textbooks just vaguely said they were ‘caught and punished’ by a coalition of the remaining Earth regional governments. So when someone at one of those deep levels decided to wake Khan and use him to further his own agenda, no one else knew what had been unleashed.

And back to the first hand, Kirk was definitely going to keep the location of the Augments’ new planet a secret, because nobody trusted that Khan would just stay there quietly if other people in ships kept stopping by to entice or threaten him.

“So why’s he mad at you?” Kirk asked, switching topics. The query made Khan twitch uncomfortably, which Kirk gloried in for about a millisecond before he realized the guards were relatively far away, and Ruby even farther. Maybe antagonizing Khan was not a great survival technique.

“Despite what you may think,” Khan responded coldly, a touch of defensiveness in his voice, “the Augments do not slavishly follow my lead in all things. They have their own thoughts and opinions.”

Kirk started to scoff, then realized he _had_ actually assumed the Augments just did whatever Khan wanted without question. “Hamish didn’t agree with you guys taking over the planet?” It was difficult to imagine.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Khan replied shortly. “Of course he _agreed_ with the general idea. It was obvious to everyone that the Augments were meant to rule humanity, we were created for it.” Well, obvious to the Augments and a few power-mad scientists, anyway. Everyone else seemed to have a slightly different take on the matter. “But he had some objections to the methods,” Khan allowed, less grandly.

“Less killing, more hugging?” Kirk guessed. He meant it to be sarcastic, but Khan looked at him like he was spot-on.

“Hamish is very compassionate,” he told Kirk. Clearly he saw this as a strength, which Kirk was a little surprised at. “He’s a brave warrior, a soldier, but also a physician. He was the only Augment interested in learning how to care for the humans in our power.”

“Is he an empath, like Ruby?” Kirk asked, intrigued now. He’d have to get out his big dictionary to find the different nuances between ‘empathy’ and ‘compassion,’ but someone who possessed either one would certainly stand in sharp contrast to Khan.

“Mmm, uncertain,” Khan hedged, and it seemed like he really didn’t know. “But his desire for mercy is very persuasive.”

“Okay.” Kirk had no idea what that meant. Obviously things worked a little differently in the high-octane world of the Augments. “So his last memories of you wouldn’t be so great, what with killing millions of people _and_ losing.”

“No,” Khan agreed slowly. Kirk got the distinct impression he was thinking about what would happen when Hamish learned about his more recent activities. Then Khan shook it off and stood, gracefully, while Kirk clambered to his feet. “I thank you for waking him, Kirk,” he said formally. “I think you will find him pleasant. Once he acclimates,” he added.

“Ruby’s worked out well,” Kirk offered.

“Yes.” Khan was silent for a long moment, staring off into the middle distance. “I must return to Sickbay and check on them,” he announced abruptly, and walked away from Kirk with his head high.

Again Kirk couldn’t help but wonder if things would have been different had Marcus awakened Ruby or Hamish when Khan asked for them. No, there were too many variables: Marcus knew he was waking a dragon, he wouldn’t have trusted Khan in the least, certainly not enough to bring in a second Augment. And if he was always going to threaten Khan’s crew to make him work, he never had a chance of Khan trusting _him_. The only reason Kirk was doing things differently was because he’d seen where the other path led—had he come across Khan in his cryo-tube and known what he was, he probably wouldn’t have trusted his ideas either.

On the other hand, he’d listened to his gut when Khan told him Marcus was behind everything, and that had turned out to be correct.

Shaking his head Kirk left McCoy to deal with the Augments—they seemed to get along well enough with him—and went off to talk to Spock about this data chip. It was just like Khan to dump a sticky problem like this on him, and waltz off.

**

First order of business as soon as McCoy released Hamish from Sickbay: sex! To establish hierarchy and social bonds, of course. Khan and company now had three rooms, internally connected, with a single exit; and they christened every centimeter of them, in every possible permutation.

Kirk had been wanting to talk to Hamish again, but he decided he could wait a while.

“I am not old enough to be watching this,” Uhura commented flatly, even though they were just three blobs of heat vibrating on her monitor.

“I guess Khan and Hamish made up,” Kirk responded, tilting his head to follow the blobs. He’d just been passing by, but the abstract shapes were mesmerizing, especially after you knew what they really were. Er, in spite of knowing. “Any poetry yet?”

“No, sir. Not a poetry kind of mood yet.”

“Probably used up the best stuff on Ruby,” Kirk predicted, as if there was a shortage of decent poetry in the galaxy, and Uhura rolled her eyes. “Hey, are they—is your screen right?” he asked suddenly.

Uhura had seen this maneuver before. “Yes, sir. I don’t know how they manage to stay up there.” Fantastic muscle control, obviously.

“That’s not possible,” Kirk denied. “And if it’s _possible_ , it’s really not _safe_ —“ Thinking of the phrase ‘safe sex’ made him remember something he’d forgotten to ask about, something very important, and he snapped the switch to Sickbay. “Kirk to McCoy.” Uhura tensed beside him and he remembered belatedly that she didn’t like anyone else touching her buttons. Which sounded unhelpfully dirty in his current frame of mind.

“ _McCoy here_ ,” the doctor answered, and Kirk tried to stay focused.

“Uh, Bones, have you put the Augments on any kind of contraception?” Kirk asked, attempting to sound casual.

McCoy thankfully only gave a small snort. “ _Yes, from day one_ ,” he assured Kirk. “ _Khan was very helpful in suggesting a formulation that would work on them. And I tested it_.”

“Okay, thanks, I was just wondering,” Kirk replied, and cut the channel. “For no reason, really,” he added in a mutter, watching the blobs again. “Just—wouldn’t want little Augments running around. Augmentlets?” he tried.

Uhura thawed slightly. “Augmentlings,” she suggested with a smirk.

Kirk saw Spock looking askance at them in a Vulcan-like way and he straightened up. “Well, keep me informed,” he told her. “Er, if anything—“ Three lines peaked on the voice monitor and the blobs practically sparked with sudden heat. “G-d,” he sighed and went back to his chair, trying to content himself with being a starship captain. That had to count for _something_ , right?

**

The orgy ended sooner than Kirk thought it would. He was suspicious and decided to wait another day or two before talking to Hamish, in case they were just taking a break because someone had gotten a cramp or something. Uhura kept one screen open on them, though she had plenty of other duties to attend to (as Mr. Spock liked to remind her—Uhura voted for flat-out jealousy, but Kirk thought he might just be really uncomfortable with the idea of his girlfriend watching other people have sex, which was usually a lead-in for the two of them complaining about how uptight Spock was).

You could not ever forget about Khan, but Kirk had had the luxury of going maybe five minutes without thinking of him when suddenly Uhura said from behind him, “Captain—trouble with the Augments—“ This was loud enough that everyone on the Bridge heard her, and Kirk jumped out of his chair to her side.

“What’s going on?” he asked urgently. The view was on regular video again, everyone fully clothed thank goodness, and even though only Uhura could hear them, you didn’t need audio to see that Hamish and Khan were arguing. The thought chilled Kirk just a little and he realized suddenly how much he was trusting Khan to keep the Augments in line… and what if he couldn’t?

“Hamish was watching footage from London and San Francisco,” Uhura revealed quickly, listening to them through her earpiece.

“S—t,” Kirk commented, in a ‘s—ks to be Khan’ kind of way. The ire of compassionate people, even his own, was only what Khan deserved. “Ruby will calm them down in a minute,” he predicted. “Uh… why isn’t Ruby calming them down?”

“Maybe she’s too upset,” Uhura suggested tensely. “I can hear her crying, she might be in the other room.”

Well, that could be a problem. Khan _might_ have been trying to placate Hamish, judging from his body language, but it clearly wasn’t working, and the smaller man shoved Khan away when he reached for him. “Oh s—t,” Kirk repeated, more seriously, as Hamish found the single exit locked and began pounding on it in frustration. His fists left dents.

“Get me the guards,” Kirk ordered Uhura. “Stand down!” No one needed to get hurt trying to subdue an upset Augment, and they _would_ , as easily as an angry child could damage a toy. Now Hamish was trying to pry the doors apart, and as the locking mechanism sparked Kirk feared he might actually succeed. Kirk glanced quickly at Spock, body poised to run, communicating his intentions, and the Vulcan nodded.

If this was the runt of the litter, what were the others like?

Khan grabbed Hamish’s shoulder, pulling him away from the door, and Hamish spun around and punched Khan in the face. “S—t!” Kirk exclaimed once again, as Hamish threw himself at the doors. “Just let him out!” he told Uhura, bolting for the lift with Spock on his heels. “And wherever he goes, clear the corridors. Sulu, chair!”

“Yes, sir,” he heard vaguely behind him.

On Uhura’s screen, the cabin doors parted, and the sudden lack of resistance made Hamish stumble into the hall. The two guards watched him warily but made no threatening moves. Khan stuck his head out the doorway, calling to Hamish, and the other man fled. “Deck sixteen, section C, clear the hallway,” Uhura transmitted urgently, trying to keep Hamish in view at all times.

Khan’s voice roared in her ear. “Kirk!” he demanded.

“He’s on his way, Khan,” she replied, trying to sound coolly professional, but she was afraid her voice shook slightly, especially when he turned and glared directly at her through the camera, like he was trying to burn her soul. The effect was not lessened by holding a sobbing Ruby in his arms, and Uhura quickly flipped the view to heat vision.

Kirk and Spock burst from the lift onto deck sixteen. Crewmembers flattened against the wall to avoid them; Hamish must not have come this way. “McCoy, that locator beacon better be good for something!” Kirk barked into his communicator as he jogged along.

“ _Yeah, he turned off sixteen at section D, into tube F15_ ,” McCoy responded immediately.

Great, climbing up a Jeffries tube should slow him down a little. Kirk and Spock rounded a corner to Khan’s quarters, where the doors stood open at a slight angle. “Khan, come on, let’s go!” Kirk shouted, and Khan quickly fell in with them. “I’m not tackling this guy on my own.”

“It’s my fault, Kirk,” Khan asserted, somehow able to sound dramatically earnest even while running. “I take full responsibility for his actions—“

“Let’s just find him first, okay?” Kirk interrupted briskly. “G-d, I can’t believe he punched you in the face,” he had to add as they ducked into the F15 tube and started climbing.

“He’s upset,” Khan explained from below him.

“Well, why didn’t Ruby calm him down?” He realized how much he’d been counting on her influence.

“She was upset, too,” Khan told him. “Augments get upset better than anyone.” Kirk rolled his eyes.

“It is not logical to deem a more violent and uncontrollable emotional reaction as ‘better,’” Spock judged from below Khan.

“It depends on the cultural context—“ Khan began reasonably, but Kirk wasn’t in the mood to hear a debate on the subject.

“Bones, I don’t see him in F15,” he complained over his communicator.

“ _Right, I think he got out at deck eighteen_ ,” McCoy clarified, and Kirk gritted his teeth and kept climbing. “ _But the signal is getting weak_ —“

“He’s still on the d—n ship, Bones!” Kirk snapped. “There’s nowhere else to go! How could the signal be getting weak?!”

“Captain, we are nearing Engineering,” Spock observed, as Kirk hopped out of the tube on deck eighteen. “The isolytic radiation from the warp core could be interfering with the beacon’s signal.”

“You didn’t think of that?!” Khan demanded, appalled.

Kirk narrowed his eyes. “We _did_ think of it, he’d have to be standing right _on_ the warp core before—S—t. Scotty!” he summoned into his communicator.

“ _Wee bit busy right now, Captain!_ ” Scotty responded breathlessly. Sounds of chaos in Engineering crackled over the speaker and Kirk started running again. “ _Okay, lad, you need to get down from there, you’re just going to get hurt—_ “

“Hamish!” Khan called.

“ _Oh, his name’s Hamish, is it?_ ” Scotty asked with interest. “ _Good Scottish name, that is. Hamish! Get off my warp core!_ ”

“He’s just scared,” Khan said quickly to Kirk. “He doesn’t understand where he is—“ He seemed very concerned that Hamish was going to get into trouble for this.

Kirk was not thinking about that yet and plunged through the doors of Engineering. Everyone was staring upwards above the warp core, where Hamish was crouched on a catwalk, looking very much like he didn’t know how he’d gotten himself into this mess.

“Non-essential personnel out,” Kirk told Scotty, trying to figure the fastest way up to the catwalk.

“Okay, you and you go, you stay, you keep an eye on that,” Scotty began to direct.

“Hamish!” Khan shouted up to him. “Come down from there!”

“Just leave me alone,” Hamish replied defiantly, trying to stand on wobbly legs.

There was a utility ladder going up the wall and Kirk began to climb it, gesturing for Khan to stay where he was when he started to follow. Remarkably, he obeyed, moving back into the open where he could see Hamish better. Keenser popped out of the darkness at just the wrong moment, startling Hamish further—Kirk couldn’t blame him, the little guy looked like his face had been carved out of a walnut or something, slightly creepy and definitely alien.

“Quit lurking in the shadows, you wee monster!” Scotty called to him in irritation. “Get down here!” Keenser scampered away past Kirk, who was edging onto the catwalk.

“Hamish,” he began. The man wouldn’t look at him, peering down into the glow of the warp core like it had mesmerized him.

“Just—I just—“ His hands clenched the railing, the knuckles turning white. His face was filled with rage, grief, confusion.

“I know,” Kirk told him steadily, and the man looked at him sharply. “I was there, I know what he did.”

Hamish nodded slowly and turned to stare at the warp engine again. Kirk didn’t know what he had in mind, if anything—not jumping surely, the fall would be unlikely to kill a regular human let alone an Augment. And the warp core was too well-shielded for a person falling onto it to affect it—that would be a huge design flaw, in a starship.

“Hamish, I know how you feel,” Kirk told him simply, inching closer. “But you’re scaring people now. Why don’t you come with me, we’ll go someplace quiet. Hamish,” he added firmly, and the man started to attention like a good soldier. “Come on.”

Releasing a long, slow breath Hamish nodded, and unfolded his hands from the railing. Kirk got close enough to take his arm, and felt better for it. “Sorry,” Hamish muttered apologetically. “To cause trouble. I just—“

“It’s okay,” Kirk assured him, taking his other arm. “It’s a lot to take in. Let’s get out of here, okay?”

“Right.”

Kirk led him from the catwalk back to the balcony around the upper story of Engineering, feeling the keen eyes watching him silently from below. Hamish came quietly, like he wouldn’t have known where to go if Kirk had released him.

“This way,” Kirk guided, taking him out of Engineering into a quiet corridor. “Let’s go right in here.”

They passed through the doors of the forward lounge, which was empty, and Hamish froze as he saw the large portal filled with stars. “Oh, G-d.”

“Oh, you haven’t looked out the window yet?” Kirk said lightly. “Come on, let’s see it.” They moved closer to the barrier and Hamish gingerly touched it, feeling the chill of the plexisteel and the faint hum of the engines they had just left.

“All those streaks of light are stars?” he checked.

“Right,” Kirk confirmed. “We’re traveling faster than the speed of light, so the physical view gets a little distorted.”

“How-how can we be traveling faster than light?” Hamish asked him. “Isn’t that impossible?”

Kirk knew the thirty-second answer, though he wasn’t sure that would satisfy an Augment. “Well—do you know Einstein?” he began.

“Not personally,” Hamish answered seriously. “He was a little before my time.”

Kirk gave him a sideways glance. “Okay, imagine space is like a piece of fabric,” he said, holding his two hands flat, side by side. “Our engine produces a field of energy that warps that fabric”—he folded his hands together slowly—“so that points that were once far away”—he tapped his thumbs against the sides of his hands—“are now closer together. The more energy produced, the more the fabric is warped, and the closer the two points become.” He dropped his hands. “But since our brains have trouble with that concept, we just say we’re going faster.”

Hamish stared at him for a long moment and Kirk feared he was going to ask for equations. “That’s brilliant,” he declared finally. “Who came up with that?”

“Well, Zefram Cochrane was a big name, but there were lots of others,” Kirk hedged.

“And is one of these stars Earth?” Hamish asked, pointing out the window. “Er, the sun. _Our_ sun. That’s silly, isn’t it, everyone probably calls their own planet ‘the earth’ and their own star ‘the sun,’” he realized.

“Kirk to Bridge,” Kirk summoned in response.

“ _Bridge here, Captain_ ,” Sulu responded promptly.

Kirk did not think the pilot would like his next orders. “All stop,” he commanded. “Swing us around so the forward lounge has a view of Earth.”

There was a pause, and then a confused but faithful Sulu replied, “ _Aye, sir_.”

The ship began to slow, the streaks of light shortening to individual points. “Sometimes we call Earth Terra,” Kirk commented conversationally as they waited. “Humans are Terrans, the sun is Sol. The Sol System. Hasn’t completely caught on, though,” he admitted. “We try to call other people by their name for themselves, but sometimes it’s too hard to pronounce. It becomes kind of a jumble, really.” Uhura had complained about this disorganization many times.

“I guess,” Hamish agreed. In his time on Earth, virtually all corners had been explored, all people discovered and named; it was a given. Now there was a whole galaxy of unknowns for him to reconcile.

“ _We’re in position, Captain_ ,” Sulu informed him.

“Thanks. Hold for now.”

“Which one is Sol?” Hamish asked eagerly, eyes darting desperately across the field.

“Computer, circle the Sol System,” Kirk ordered. This was not just a window, but also a view screen, which seemed marvelous to Hamish.

“ _Acknowledged_ ,” the computer replied.

Kirk waited a beat but nothing seemed to happen, and he glanced sideways at Hamish. “Computer, did you circle the Sol System?” he checked. Why did this always happen when someone was watching?

“ _Affirmative_.”

Okay, obvious problem. “Enlarge the circled region until we can see it,” Kirk clarified. Sometimes the computer was _charmingly_ literal. Though in this case it would probably be quite effective for Hamish.

A large red circle appeared in the upper right, encompassing a number of stars. “There,” Hamish pointed out.

“Computer, zoom in on the Sol System, slowly,” Kirk ordered, and the image changed smoothly, for once proceeding at the right pace, combining navigational information with real images from the scanners both live and previously recorded. Areas of blackness were revealed as being filled with stars; points of light turned into clusters of stars that spread further and further apart until it was hard to believe they’d ever been seen as one. And still they kept zooming, Hamish’s expression growing more and more sober.

Kirk was familiar with the star field around Sol and recognized it when it appeared. “Computer, zoom at half speed, and circle the Sol System.” This time they were actually able to see it.

“Oh G-d,” Hamish said once again, his voice breaking slightly. “It’s so small!”

“Yeah,” Kirk agreed quietly. All the wars ever fought to gain one patch of ground on one planet around one sun—all the people who had suffered and died, for an infinitesimal speck around a microscopic point of light—that was what Kirk often thought about these days.

And Hamish had actually helped start one of those wars, the worst war actually. His expression said he was asking himself what it was all for, really.

He swallowed hard. “How far away are we?” he asked softly.

“About seven hundred light years,” Kirk replied.

“Seven hundred,” he repeated in wonder. “And all these other stars, do they have planets?”

“Most of them do have planets, yes,” Kirk agreed, “but only a certain percentage have life, that we know of anyway. A lot are too hot or too cold, too unstable, toxic gases, that kind of thing. And then an even _smaller_ percentage have _intelligent_ life.” He paused, afraid he was going to overwhelm the other man. “That’s our mission out here, actually, to seek out new worlds, new civilizations.”

“To conquer?” Hamish asked with concern.

“No, just to explore,” Kirk assured him, and he relaxed a little. “Our mission is peaceful science and diplomacy.” His conscience pricked at him. “Of course we _do_ get into scrapes sometimes,” he admitted. “I mean, not everybody’s happy to see newcomers to their part of space, you know? Even if we’re peaceful.”

“It must be terrifying to people,” Hamish nodded, “to discover they’re not alone in the universe.”

“Well… sometimes we do first contact,” Kirk hedged. “First contact between the Federation and someone else, that happens a lot. But, we have a strict rule, our Prime Directive, that says we can only contact advanced civilizations, usually those that already have warp capability or are otherwise reaching out on their own.” Kirk shifted uncomfortably as he thought over the list of times he’d broken that rule, always with perfectly good intentions and reasoning, of course. “But we generally don’t, you know, drop in on a Stone Age tribe and give them phasers and tell them to worship us. That’s really frowned on.”

“You guys have really thought this through,” Hamish marveled, impressed.

“Well, you’ve been asleep for a while,” Kirk pointed out. “Lot to catch up on.”

“Yes,” Hamish agreed. He seemed calmer now, more thoughtful. “Aliens. I can’t believe it. That’s marvelous. I mean, technology, you always figure that will advance eventually,” he explained, “but there didn’t _have_ to be anyone else out there. Humans could have been it for intelligent life. Well, that and whatever they made in a lab,” he sighed.

Kirk was quiet for a minute. “You gonna be okay with Khan?” he finally asked, painful though the subject was. “I could put you on a different deck—“ It would be awkward, but Kirk didn’t think he could force someone to share a small space with Khan if they didn’t want to—it would just be too cruel.

Hamish waved him off, though. “No, it’s alright,” he assured Kirk. “Just—the shock—that ship right into San Francisco…” He trailed off and Kirk waited. “He’s Khan, of course that’s what he would do on his own. Not-not that it was _right_ ,” he hastened to add. “Not at all. But without us, without any of us to help him, and thinking we were dead… I guess I’m not surprised.” He sighed heavily.

“No offense,” Kirk began, which almost always led to offense, “but if that’s the kind of thing you and Ruby have to keep a leash on—well, good luck. If he slips free I’m not sure the galaxy would survive. Honestly.”

Hamish smiled a little, which was not the reaction Kirk expected. “I don’t think he’ll slip free,” he said. “Not with both of us helping him, and all the others to think about.”

Kirk was not reassured. “The wars on Earth—“

“Yeah, that was a bad situation,” Hamish understated. “We were made, _designed_ , to conquer. Raised with that as our purpose. The problem was there were already _people_ on Earth.” He looked out over the field of stars. “An empty planet would be perfect. No one else to bother us, a bit of challenge from the environment… We used to talk about that sometimes,” he revealed, with a self-aware smirk. “Could we just find an island and build a civilization there, just Augments? But there was no uninhabited island big enough for us, and none where the rest of the world would leave us alone,” he concluded, shaking his head.

They were quiet a moment longer, and Kirk suddenly remembered everyone on the whole ship was just sitting there, motionless, while he and Hamish stared at a star field that actually had nothing to do with what was outside the window, it was so magnified. There were privileges to being Captain, but he didn’t want to push it. “Kirk to Bridge. Resume course and speed.”

Sulu sounded relieved. “ _Yes, sir_.” The ship began to hum again, subtle but enlivening, and once Kirk felt the shift to warp he cleared the view screen, returning the image to the streaks of light they’d walked in on.

Hamish took a breath, with finality. “Sorry to be a bother, Captain,” he said. “I’m sure you’re very busy.”

Kirk shrugged. “It’s nice to talk to an Augment who isn’t all ‘I am the best at everything’ like Khan,” he admitted freely, and Hamish smiled knowingly. “You and Ruby seem very different from him.”

“Yes, well, that’s the point, isn’t it?” Hamish noted. “Don’t get used to it, the others are almost as insufferably arrogant as Khan. I do miss them, though,” he confessed distantly. “It’s weird, in some ways it feels like everything on Earth happened just a few days ago, and in other ways it feels very faint, like a dream.”

“You three have a unique perspective on time,” Kirk pointed out.

“Yes. I’m thinking of doing some writing,” Hamish added unexpectedly. “I like to write. Memories, impressions. Would that be allowed?”

“Er, yeah,” Kirk agreed readily, impressed he’d asked. “I can’t guarantee it would stay totally private, though,” he warned.

“Understood.”

“A lot has been written on the Eugenics Wars,” Kirk went on—he’d been catching up on it lately—“but obviously nothing from the Augments’ perspective. Could be very enlightening for scholars. If it didn’t get classified first,” he added darkly.

Hamish smirked faintly. “It’s funny to think we’re distant history now,” he remarked. “Like… the settling of the North American continent, or the English Civil War was in our time.” Then his face darkened. “Not _entirely_ distant,” he amended before Kirk felt compelled to, thinking of the information that had driven him here in the first place.

Kirk was not sure what to say to that. He remembered news commentators at the time trying to make comparisons to other historical figures—imagine Adolf Hitler reappearing and bombing a building, or Genghis Khan’s Mongol hordes sweeping through a modern city (and really, how could you doubt his creators’ intentions when they named their chief Khan?). As if the cause of the devastation was really the novelty, on a world that saw few if any violent crimes.

Of course, he always had to add, in his own mind if nowhere else, that Khan alone was not to blame. Marcus’s plans were clear—he would’ve plunged the Federation into a bloody war with the Klingons. Khan’s plans for after he’d fulfilled Marcus’s demands—assuming they ever ended—were _not_ clear, and had in any case been derailed by Marcus’s threats against his crew, his family. Not that Khan hadn’t done wrong. But he hadn’t popped up out of nowhere and done wrong just for the fun of it—he hadn’t even started the wrong.

Some of the more recent books Kirk had read said the Augments hadn’t started the Eugenics Wars, either, that they had been precipitated when concerned governments had tried to preemptively destroy the Augments and their scientist creators. That view was a bit revisionist, though, and currently _not_ popular in light of Khan’s recent behavior. He wondered what the Augments themselves would have to say about it.

“You ready to go back?” Kirk asked Hamish, not wanting to push. “You can stay here for a while by yourself if you want.”

Hamish shook his head. “Nah, Khan’s right outside the door,” he revealed, with some amusement. Kirk turned to look back but the door was still closed. “I can hear his perfect breathing,” he added dryly.

“I can make him go away,” Kirk offered, more confidently than he felt.

“It’s alright,” Hamish promised, and he seemed sincere. Kirk let him leave the forward lounge first, finding Khan indeed leaning against the wall outside, with a security team just down the hall.

Khan’s eyes darted between Kirk and Hamish, then settled on his fellow Augment. “Hamish…” he began, with unusual hesitation.

Hamish hugged him, which no one else was expecting. “I’m sorry I hit you, Khan,” he apologized. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Well… it didn’t hurt,” Khan claimed, clearly thinking this would make Hamish feel better.

Hamish chuckled faintly. “Can we go back to our rooms and talk? With Ruby?”

“Of course,” Khan agreed generously, though there was little else they could do at this point. They started to walk away and Khan gazed back over his shoulder at Kirk, finally giving him a slight nod. The tiny gesture seemed hugely significant to Kirk, an acknowledgement that perhaps he wasn’t completely useless in Khan’s universe after all. He turned away quickly, headed back to the Bridge and rational, sane people—before he could fall further under Khan’s spell himself.


End file.
